The Fox Model 10

Arriving by post, this rather scarce Fox 10 is a welcome addition to the collection. But, as with quite a few older machines, I've decided to do my duty to restore it as best as I can before I set it upon a display shelf. It's the least I can do for a Fox.

Striking a blow for self reliance

Nothing typewriter related today (though I do have something on its way that I'll be eager to show soon enough). Just a few of the latest odds and ends I've been dealing with, incidentally working towards the general goals of the glorious Typewriter Revolution.

I'm not in the city, rather I live just a bit aways in the county, and while that means it's far quieter and serene (surrounded by the forest and whatnot), it also means we lack certain guarantees that most of the city dwellers have; one primary thing being an almost unquestionable ability to state that the power simply will not go out. If it does, it goes out for an hour or so. That's not quite the case where I live; a few years back, due to a rather serious wind storm, we lost power for a full week in late November. It's interesting to deal with candlelight as your only means of illumination for about 1/3 of your day, and more interesting still to find means of entertaining yourself.

From that particular power outage (and the many that have occurred since), I decided I should find a way to play music without needing electricity. A previously charged MP3 works well, but only until it runs out of juice. I wanted something a bit more, say, phonographic.

The problem, however, is that we don't have phonographs in large supply out here. We have full sized Victrolas pop up on craigslist here and there, but nothing easily portable. So I finally decided to hell with it, I'll make my own. I bought a motor and tonearm off ye olde Ebay, and built the rest.

I decided to make what I call a "Multi-Box", so that the top can be taken off and replaced on a whim for multiple uses. Below is the underside of the record player board, with poorly made acoustic horn and engine visible.

And the top of the board, on the Multi-Box stand.

I ended up not liking it, however, so I threw together a smaller, even more portable version within a day and am quite pleased with it.

I've only got two 78s on hand at the moment, but will be trying to locate some more. At least I can listen to old school "Cotten Eye Joe" over and over and over again until driven mad.

Another fun project I finally was able to get functional is this old drill press. I had to modify a modern chuck into it so that I could change bits (the drill otherwise only accepts bits with 1/2 inch ends). It's fun to get cranking on it, and it turns out that I actually have found it more useful in certain circumstances than my only other option, a hand drill. You can get far more force per rotation into this drill due to the simple mechanics of it and its lengthy lever than you can get from a hand drill before it overheats.

I also stumbled upon a small trove of Whal-Eversharp mechanical pencils, all gold-filled, from roughly the 1920's or 1930's. I hate modern mechanical pencils because they scratch (due to the thin lead), but these suckers use 1.1mm lead, a width as thick as standard pencil leads for the most part, and it works wonderfully for me. The heavy metal barrel helps as well, since I like a bit of heft in my writing implements.

And to top it all off, I got into repairing antique fountain pens. Remarkably easy, the only hard part is making sure you don't break them taking them apart. I was finally able to satisfy a hunt I've been on for years and years; a beautiful antique blue fountain pen.

One of the things I love about fountain pens is their permanence; you don't just toss them out when they're out of ink. You simply take a second to refill it. And a single bottle of ink can last what seems like forever, and for the cost (about $10 a bottle) it is a clear winner over standard ballpoints. 

 Stay tuned later this week for an post on our beloved typewriters

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Antique Store Contestants

I was able to go on a typewriter safari today, though it turned out that 2 of the stores I generally frequent (and find machines at) were closed early, so I will never know what treasures I possibly missed out on. Schrodingers antique store, if you will.

I found a whopping 4 machines in the other stores I traveled to. Did I take one home with me? If so, which?

A Royal Mercury, or a model near it.  In working condition, relatively clean. Backspace caused a bit of a skip however, acting like a tabulator almost. 

Price: $68.95

A Remington Noiseless, in decently clean shape. Margin release was broken, and the bell did not work. Otherwise, in respectable working condition.

Price: $68.95

A green Royal Quiet Deluxe, with the line-spacing button stuck in the platen so that said platen was not catching on the line spacing gear. Otherwise, in good working order.

Price: $50

A Remington Rand desktop, with wide carriage. Dusty, but fully functional upon inspection. 

Price: $74.99

The Safari led to fewer typewriters found than one may have on the East Coast, but I was just glad to find some regardless, and all considerably more affordable than antique stores tend to price them.

The time are a' changin'. Exponentially.

I've gone Postal

No, not THAT kind of "going postal". Rather, the kind involving our beloved mechanical devices.

They say good things come in two's, right? Or is it fours?... Maybe 3/8ths?

The Postal has been on my "Wanted" list for quite some time, but when they turn up for sale they are usually 1) in good condition and thus 2) far beyond my price range. These two rust buckets were closer to my range of affordability, so I jumped at them.

I believe the one on the right is a 3, and the one on the left is a 5.

First things first, I had to do what I had to do; I tore the Postal 3 to pieces, learning much about its function along the way.

The prognosis is thus far good. Once I get a few stuck screws out, I can work on cleaning the whole thing up, with a new layer of shiny black paint (hurrah, no decals to worry about). 

The Postal is, in base terms, like someone literally took a Blickensderfer and a Hammond, blew them up, mixed the debris together, superglued the parts back together willy-nilly to make a functioning machine, and baked at 425 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes.

Here's hoping that I can get it functioning decently. I really, really want to see if its a better machine than a Blick in terms of usage.

Despite the gap in blogposts, my workshop has not been sitting idle. I was able to get a rust bucket American No. 8 back up and running, and despite the simplicity behind the mechanics, these things do not type very well. I'm sure brand new they were decent, or if kept in good condition all this time still do ok, but this rust bucket in particular really shows the damage it took sitting in a Maine barn for 50 years.

I also was able to finally get a Molle from a fellow collector. These things are really cool, and seem to be very decent typers when in a maintained condition. The keyboard spacing, due to the design, renders it hard for me to accurately type much on it though. The top rows are ok, but the bottom row is so far off I type one character off almost all the time.

That's it for the typewriters for now. I've recently been trying my hand at other odds and ends, and one of those odds is an art-deco themed wooden notebook. The three rings can be opened, so new paper can always be put in.

A letterholder was crafted as well.

A clock, too. I'm working on making a mechanical clock out of wood, but making wooden gears by hand takes quite a bit of time. Probably need some better tools.

And a friend requested a clipboard. 

That's it for the non-typewriter stuff. 

By the way, shout out to anyone from Maine for your Senator Angus King. I have CSPAN on in the background today, and he gave a very good speech in regards to the deficit today as the Senate works on that new tax reform bill.